North Carolina doesn't have enough afterschool programs to meet demand — a shortage that could have implications for grades and juvenile crime, education advocates say.
The Afterschool Alliance recently surveyed 800 North Carolina parents and found that about 80% of them want their children to go to an afterschool program but can't find one or afford one.
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The afterschool programs in the survey are structured activities and they often are located at a student's school. They could have tutoring, mentorship and generally supervised socializing.
"Parents in North Carolina are overwhelmingly agreeing that after school programs are keeping their children safe, keeping them off screens and keeping them learning," said Elizabeth Anderson, director of the North Carolina Center for Afterschool Programs.
She noted that the survey found satisfaction with the programs from the vast majority of parents whose children go to one. They say it keeps their kids out of trouble and helps them work more hours.
Right now, Anderson said, a lot of students without an afterschool program get on the bus and go home after school and their parents may or may not be there.
"The after-school hours often are when there's an increase in the incidence of juvenile crime for kids that are not engaged in after school programs," she said.
Cost, location and transportation were all issues that parents pointed out for why they don't send their children to an afterschool program.
The big one was cost, with about 59% of parents saying that was the main barrier.
But more than one-third of parents (38%) also said there are no programs in their area to send their child to.
"There are a lot of families who really want to access programs and are not able to access them, and that actually has remained pretty constant across the country and in North Carolina as well," said Jen Rinehart, senior vice president for strategy and programs at the Afterschool Alliance.
Rinehart said a lot of programs exist thanks to philanthropy and public funding, including federal education funding. They aren't really market-driven.
She says more investment is the way to expand these programs, and she said other states have found positives returns on their investments in it.
Stagnant investment and rising costs are reasons why things have gotten much better over the years, Rinehart said. The Afterschool Alliance has conducted surveys since 2009, and they show the percentage of North Carolina enrolled in an afterschool program hasn't really changed much over that time span, about 12% of children.